Cambodia, Sen Monorom theTown- Modulkiri The Province

Just the normal things of day to day life in a third world country restaurant, somewhere on what used to be the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

...this is the detour we must take if we want to go to the bank...wonder when that little bridge will fall down.

looks like i will take off to kratie tomorrow as yesterday was a brilliantly busy day at the restaurant: amongst others: a group of 16 with insufferable brats, and missionaries: i do not have much good to say about those zealots, but their rugrats are well behaved: they probably hit them over the head with the bible on a regular base.

on the less fun side: the pump was stolen out of the well and Obama my white rooster was stolen too, the garden lights ditto.I hate this town and have defititely decided to sell the place and move closer toward the real world and my friends: maybe Phnom penh or kompong cham....

Monday, December 28, 2009

Hope that all of you had a wonderful chrismas and wish you a happy new year!
here business pretty much as usual, whatever that maybe. the seson staggers away, sometimes marvelous, sometimes sluggish. had hoped to get to Kratie for a new years party at crazy chicago joe's restaurant - the place is on the mehkong and goes by the delightful name of 'red sun falling down'. but it looks like i will not make it there this year...
the city fathers and powers that be came up with a new bubu: now they got rid of the last of the tarmak in town- all the way to the bank- about 2 km out of town: the detour into town is still under construction... and they dug some more and closed off several streets- including mine- with huge heaps of earth, and everybody staggers over debris and that will not change anytime soon...

Saturday, December 19, 2009

as it is dry and windy the dust is not far behind (or ahead as may be the case..) big clouds of reddish stuff alight on the horizon to join our own plentiful red dust that follows every car and moto, and heavens!- indeed- when the missionary plane hits our sorry excuse of a landing strip, it looks like all the forces of alexander the great are ready to storm our little outpost or... maybe ghengis khan.. but it is only the missionaries arriving (just as destructive if you ask me)...as my restaurant is not on the road- not good for business but better visibility, the dust is not too bad here, not like main street; today lian brought the cambodia daily from pp in his taxi. I read the rag and when i had finished it felt just like sand paper... reason beein' - the powers that be decided to spruce up da town and started by demolishing main street to become a boulevard of fifty meters wide: so everybody had to move their houses back by about ten meters or so. then bulldozers came and destroyed the street. plowed up all the old trees and left ; a dust bowl. then some kind of earth moving equipment was brought in to dig the monsoon drains. and so they did dig: now the street had holes- deep ones too. ( there was some fun when the bulldozer fell into its own hole and it took them several days of satisfying mucking around to get the bloody thing out).
then the powers that be decided that 'they maybe make mistake' and now everybody has to move back their houses yet again by several meters. did not go over to well with the natives indeed. so now everybody is fighting and the dust blows on and why do we need a boulavard anyways? beats us.

as the dutch call it:.
...it has been awhile, sorry:
first because nothing was happening and then things happend and kept me trotting at a nice but not too dramatic clip: it was evident something like the season has started. for a little while the place was packed and so was bill's. so we made some money and started paying debts and stocking up and then... no more; the customers were gone and ...nothing. Now, this happens every year: the turnover between the people who want to be home for christmas and those who leave their country to flee the merry season..(still not an enjoyable moment after the 'crisis had hit our businesses rather hard...)..so until yesterday we were broke again, and then the first of the xmas haters arrived: just the people we like. not the ncv's, the dreadlocks, fake tatoos, recently artificially 'balded' 'price- of- cheap- banana pankakers'- discussing gap year idiots, but genuine people: writers, designers artists, photographers, and so on. a fun crowd, interesting and now we wait for the pp crowd to show up to lead these nice professionals astray... and off we will be...
when the eternal rainy season goes on and on, we always say; oh if it were only dry, and then it is and then we realize we did forget that after the rainy season the sunny , crisp( now that's an euphemism, we call it freezing) and.. aww.. the windy weeks start; it blows straight from where? manchuria? vladivostok or some such and it blows and blows. hard, enough to make my building and bed shake, to send the bullies under their blanket shivering and to make us wear multiple sweaters. how the banana plants survive this is beyond me- though they do look a tad tattered and ratty at the moment and tend to keel over prefferably onto power lines or on unsuspecting tourists. we do have a horrific time hacking the bloody things over before they do any serious damage-
..aw the ncv days aint't quite over yet. just had two: belgians, believe it or not....cheap as shit they were.( belgians as a rule can not resist a good meal and a few cold ones when they do they are seriously hardcore cheapos).
do not think any more customers will come tonight; it is cold windy and dark....
sooo an early night. ..